Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Innovation and Science: Regional Planning and Development

James Daly: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to harness science and innovation for the purposes of the Government’s levelling up agenda.

George Freeman: The Levelling Up White Paper sets out how we will maximise the contribution of innovation to levelling up by building on existing and emerging strengths across the country. This includes a commitment to increase public investment in R&D outside the Greater South East by at least one third over the Spending Review period and at least 40 percent by 2030; making levelling up one of the objectives of our R&D investment strategy and aiming for the regions outside the Greater South East to receive at least 55% of BEIS’ R&D budget by 2024/25; and investing £100 million as part of piloting new Innovation Accelerators supporting three UK city regions to become major, globally competitive centres for research and innovation.

Department of Health and Social Care

Dental Services: Expenditure

Cat Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the total expenditure was in (a) nominal and (b) real terms on NHS primary dental services in England (i) gross and (ii) net of patient charge revenue in each year since 2010-11.

Cat Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the total expenditure was on NHS primary dental services in England per head of population in (a) nominal and (b) real terms (i) gross and (ii) net of patient charge revenue in each year since 2010-11.

Maria Caulfield: Data is not available on the total expenditure of National Health Service (NHS) primary dental services in real terms or per head of population.The total expenditure on NHS primary dental services in England in nominal terms, gross and net of patient charge revenue from 2010/11 can be seen in the following table:Financial YearGross £’000Net £’000Total funding (central funding plus income from patient charges)Central funding2010/112,692,9792,075,9652011/122,812,6812,175,5602012/132,843,6912,190,6852013/142,740,0522,056,4692014/152,746,3082,030,2942015/162,804,0612,060,2182016/172,767,9081,991,0962017/182,811,5692,004,2362018/192,788,4941,932,1102019/202,958,2622,109,9702020/213,031,1092,753,444 Source: Department of Health and Social Care Annual Report and Accounts.

Coronavirus: Screening

Angela Rayner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will place in the Library a copy of the email reported to have been sent from the Chief Commercial Officer, Head of Corporate Services and Transition Director for NHS Test and Trace/UKHSA, on 10 February 2021, regarding contact from Baroness Mone on the subject RE: SENSITIVE: LFDs and the new variants.

Maggie Throup: A copy of the email of 10 February 2021 is attached. We have redacted personal information or information which could lead to the identification of individuals. PQ81881 (pdf, 563.4KB)

Coronavirus: Travel

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, to confirm when proof of recovery from covid-19 will be available for 12 to 15 year olds via the NHS Covid Pass for the purpose of international travel.

Maggie Throup: Since 3 February, children aged 12 years old and over are able to get a digital NHS COVID Pass for international travel. The travel digital NHS COVID Pass shows evidence of prior infection (recovery) for 180 days following a positive NHS PCR test and provides a record of COVID-19 vaccinations received. The pass is available via the NHS.UK website for those aged 12 years old and over and via the NHS App for those aged 13 years old and over.

NHS: Sexual Offences

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 9 November to Question 69197, if he will list those NHS organisations whose annual reports include a breakdown of complaints that specifically includes a distinct category for recording the number of allegations of sexual abuse.

Maria Caulfield: The Department does not hold the data requested. The Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service Complaints (England) Regulations 2009 govern the way National Health Service (NHS) organisations handle and report complaints. While there is no specific requirement in legislation to categorise complaints by allegations of sexual abuse, NHS organisations are required to record the subject matter of complaints. NHS organisations must ensure that their complaints annual reports are available to any person on request.

Ministry of Defence

Defence: Finance

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of increasing military expenditure following recent aggression from Russia and China.

James Heappey: The 2021 Integrated Review recognised the unprecedented challenges posed by geopolitical shifts, including intensifying competition between states, a widening range of security threats, and rapid technological change.To that end, the Government is increasing defence spending by over £24 billion over the next four years: the biggest investment in the UK's Armed Forces since the end of the Cold War. This increase takes the annual Defence budget to £47.9 billion in 2022-23, clearly exceeding the 2% of GDP NATO target.This commitment reinforces the UK's position as the leading European NATO Ally and underlines our enduring commitment to the defence and security of Europe.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Water Companies: Finance

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to identify potential funding opportunities for water companies to maximise co-funding and green finance opportunities in order to operate in partnerships across catchments.

Rebecca Pow: Water companies, as private companies, are best placed to identify co-funding and green finance opportunities to operate in catchment partnerships. However, we have set ourselves a target to raise at least £500 million a year in private finance for nature’s recovery in England by 2027, and more than £1 billion by 2030. Nature and catchment-based solutions in the water sector are expected to make a significant contribution to this target. We have therefore been working with industry leaders from business, finance, land management and environment sectors to understand how to scale up private finance into ecosystem service markets, including through the Financing UK Nature Recovery Coalition. This includes taking action to ensure that any investment is robust and credible, as well as delivering additionality. We will be setting out more on our plans on financing nature later this year, including through the upcoming Nature Recovery Green Paper and the update to the government’s Green Finance Strategy. Defra is already working to encourage water companies to maximise co-funding and green finance opportunities, such as through the review of the Water Industry National Environmental Programme. The review, jointly led by Defra, the Environment Agency and Ofwat, aims to further enable water companies to work with interested organisations in a catchment to jointly design and fund schemes to improve the water environment. This includes boosting investment in nature-based solutions wherever possible. Defra also encourages the use of market-based mechanisms, such as nutrient trading, and has fully supported the piloting of these approaches.

Home Office

Undocumented Migrants: English Channel

Debbie Abrahams: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of people crossing the Channel in small boats had existing family members in the UK in (a) 2019, (b) 2020 and (c) 2021.

Tom Pursglove: The Home Office is unable to state what proportion of people crossing the Channel in small boats had existing family members in the UK in (a) 2019, (b) 2020 and (c) 2021, as this information is not recorded in a way that is reportable.

Department for International Trade

Coronavirus: Vaccination

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of supporting a temporary patent waiver for covid-19 vaccines to ensure developing countries have equitable access to vaccine supply.

Penny Mordaunt: The waiver proposed at the World Trade Organisation goes beyond patents and vaccines, encompassing most intellectual property on all COVID-19-related products and technologies with no geographical or duration limits. While HM Government remains open to initiatives that will help with equitable vaccine distribution and their prompt administration, there is no evidence that waiving intellectual property protections would advance this objective. Rather, it would dismantle the framework which has and will continue to develop Covid-19 products, like vaccines, which are positively contributing to the global pandemic response, enabling vaccination of key workers like seafarers and medical staff both domestically and internationally.

Department for International Trade: Chief Scientific Advisers

Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many meetings she had with her Department's Chief Scientific Adviser from (a) 1 March to 31 May 2021, (b) 1 June to 31 August 2021 and (c) 1 September to 30 November 2021.

Penny Mordaunt: The Department for International Trade draws from a range of scientific advice and expertise, including its Chief Scientific Adviser. In line with the practice of successive administrations, details of internal meetings are not normally disclosed.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Public Service Broadcasting: Reviews

Stuart Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that under-represented communities in the West Midlands are involved in the work of the Public Broadcasting Review.

Julia Lopez: The Government’s strategic review of public service broadcasting (PSB) is about ensuring that viewers across the whole of the UK continue to benefit from a modern PSB system capable of meeting their needs now and in the future. To do so, the government and Ofcom have both engaged with stakeholders up and down the UK, including the West Midlands.As part of their ‘Small Screen: Big Debate’ review of PSB, which the government’s strategic review draws on, Ofcom conducted research groups and stakeholder engagement meetings across the UK, including in the West Midlands. The Campaign for Regional Broadcasting Midlands also responded to Ofcom’s accompanying call for evidence on the independent production sector. These responses helped inform Ofcom’s final recommendations to the government which were published in July last year.